Release & Feedback Request: Prudence

[Groggy_Dice]

I replayed the third scenario, this time the garrison held out, and I've played through to the start of scenario five. I've uploaded my first update (0.3.1), fixing these bugs:

* The event dialogue between Edwin and Marian in "Grentor Castle" had no moveto coordinates. I don't know how this behaved in 1.6, but for me, it ended the scenario as soon as Edwin ended his turn, in "victory" but without playing the dialogue. I added in coordinates and victory_when_enemies_defeated=no, so that the dialogue plays.
* In scenario 4, the cart's image didn't show: it was a ghost with a hitpoint bar and a blue circle. I never did figure out why it wasn't showing; from what I could tell, it ought to work. But while looking at the unit's config file, I changed the race from human to mechanical, since that is the standard for units like caravans and ships.

Besides that, the cart did not move towards the Orangewood; it moved towards Edwin's keep, even before I took "control" of it. I'll have to look more closely at that. But the scenario runs, and that's good enough for now.

That scenario proved fairly easy, and I don't think it would have been that much harder even if the cart hadn't been behaving like my ally. But the fifth scenario is another one where I think the "beginner" rating doesn't apply...

[Groggy_Dice]

I have a minor new version up, 0.3.2 . The biggest change is that I fixed a bug in scenario 6, that actually was mentioned earlier:

kill off your bride next turn, which actually does not lead to defeat

The problem was that her id= was given as "Countess Marian", and her name= as "Edwin". So if you hovered over the unit, it told you that it was named Edwin. And her death event was keyed to id=Marian, and didn't recognize Countess Marian. I changed her id= to Marian, and her name= to Countess Marian, fixing the problem.

However, the cart bug still has me stumped. I cannot figure out why it won't display the image; and when I upload the campaign, the image is replaced by a 5-byte file that reads, "%PNG". I think I'll have to ask for help on the forum.

And one of these days, I'll have to get around to doing that after-action write-up. I regard Scenario 5 as essentially unwinnable on Hard; there just isn't enough time. I had to debug-create two mages of light to kill the ancient lich on the last turn.

[WanderingHero]

Is it me or is the number of mudcrawlers in secnario 2 over the top? The ai spams out hordes and hordes of them, creating a big tedious wall, where the sea witch darts in and out killing key units while I get tired of fighting through the night endless wall.

I could give it another go but its irking me, since its not just challenging, its also irksome and repetive. Whats the correct straterg for this level?

Also how did the authour EVER think this was a novice campaign?

[Groggy_Dice]

Is it me or is the number of mudcrawlers in secnario 2 over the top? The ai spams out hordes and hordes of them, creating a big tedious wall, where the sea witch darts in and out killing key units while I get tired of fighting through the night endless wall.

No, it's not just you, that was my experience as well.

I could give it another go but its irking me, since its not just challenging, its also irksome and repetive. Whats the correct straterg for this level?

I haven't replayed the scenario, so I haven't tried any alternatives. My first thought was that maybe I could stay on shore, with better defense than shallow water, and attrit the sea witch when she attacked. The problem is that she will only attack occasionally.

Pondering this some more, a middle approach might work. Going into the water, but stopping when you reach the one-hex chokepoint. I think you'd be within the one-turn movement range of the sea witch, meaning she'll come out, but units savaged fighting her can only be attacked from one hex by mudcrawlers, not two. That makes it more likely they'll survive, and retreat to heal. Not going past the chokepoint also means you don't have to worry about forward units getting ZOC-locked by deepsea flankers, and unable to pull out when they're critically wounded.

But again, I haven't tried these suggestions.

Also how did the authour EVER think this was a novice campaign?

This scenario was my wake-up call that this campaign was not going to be the easy ride I thought it was. If it's any consolation, the third scenario depends less on how many leveled units you have, than on how lucky your allied general is when he puts himself on the front line. Hope that your ally's luck holds until the enemy great mage, who is equally dumb, after all, gets himself killed. Scenarios 4 and 6, I found fairly easy; Scenario 5, though, is practically impossible on Hard, in my opinion.

[Groggy_Dice]

Version 0.3.3 is up.

The big news, for me, is that I finally figured out what the problem was with the icon image for the cart unit. I had to change the binary path from data/campaigns to data/add-ons. I'd been looking at other campaigns' _main.cfg files, but that didn't help me, because mainline campaigns still use data/campaigns for their path, while the add-on campaigns were other unported 1.6 campaigns, with the same problem.

Unfortunately, while I've solved the problem locally, everybody else may still have an imageless cart. In every upload I made, it seems that the cart image has been replaced by a 5-byte file that simply reads, "%PNG". I thought the problems might be connected, and hoped it would go away when I figured out the image bug, but no dice.

The other change is to the cart's AI in scenario 4. The original scenario used formula AI to tell the cart to move to a certain location, but it didn't seem to work very well. I changed the side to be recruitable, so the cart would be considered a leader. Without a recruit list, it couldn't actually recruit, but I could use leader_goal, which worked MUCH better than the formula.

Behind the scenes, I also converted the labels in the first three scenarios to use the {PRU-LABEL} macro, which the original designer introduced with his second set of scenarios.

[joshroby]

Awesome, man. Thanks for doing all the heavy lifting!

[Groggy_Dice]

Good to know you approve!

And the image bug is finally fixed! I asked about it, (http://forums.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=35155) and it turns out that there was an issue with a file that the command-line addon_manager uses. It has been fixed in 1.9, but hadn't been backported to stable.

So now, 0.3.4! Nothing is different in any of the campaign files, except the changelog, but to players, they finally get to see the previously invisible cart.

With this, I think I have succeeded in translating the campaign as it was originally written to 1.8 .

[WanderingHero]

Went back to the campaign on a whim.

Well, whether you intended it or not, your reply to me contained a valuable hint. I saw that I needed to go back to scenario 1, and actually build up Edwin and some troops, rather than just kill Count Roger ASAP.

I finally beat scenario 2, since i was able to level up Edwin and a spearman in scenario 2, with the help of the exp I earnt in the scenario 1 and it turns out shes weak against Pikeman, and my White Mage and Knight were a help, though I didn't really need the knight.

I still think their are far too many mudcrawlers in this scenario, though I see part of the problem is that since they were never intended to be recruited, they cost a ludicrously low 5 gold, and because their so cost effective and have 0 upkeep, the ai will spam hordes and hordes and hordes of them. The battle still dragged on far too long, even when I fought the "correct" way, so I suggest raising the cost of the mudcrawlers (to 10?). Also the early finish bonus was less than the money I was making each turn, which seemed odd to me, though I ended up killing her, after I got sick of her darting in and out and killing one of my about to level spearman. Was the low early finish bonus an oversight, or were players meant to balance the reward of drawing the mission out, vs the risk of the Sea Witch killing units?

[Groggy_Dice]

Also the early finish bonus was less than the money I was making each turn, which seemed odd to me, though I ended up killing her, after I got sick of her darting in and out and killing one of my about to level spearman. Was the low early finish bonus an oversight, or were players meant to balance the reward of drawing the mission out, vs the risk of the Sea Witch killing units?

Hmm, I didn't notice getting stiffed on the bonus. I don't know if it was deliberate, though, since I'm not the original designer.

In a few days, I should have a minor update up. Basically, it will just be stuff to make the campaign ready for translation, in the (probably theoretical) event someone wishes to translate it. I'll also take the opportunity to mention this feedback thread in the menu. If you already have the campaign, there's no reason to update to the coming version.